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Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!cornell!batcomputer!itsgw!imagine!rpics!franklin
From: franklin@rpics (W. Randolph Franklin WRF)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,misc.legal,misc.consumers
Subject: Re: Mail order blues/guide
Message-ID: <1550@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU>
Date: 26 Oct 88 19:42:52 GMT
References: <55@cs-spool.calgary.UUCP> <997@aluxp.UUCP> <10319@cup.portal.com> <125@tree.UUCP>
Sender: news@imagine.PAWL.RPI.EDU
Reply-To: franklin@turing.cs.rpi.edu (W. Randolph Franklin WRF)
Organization: RPI ECSE Dept.
Lines: 26

I've had good luck ordering expensive items (camera, VCR) by mail, by
doing this.

1. Checking old issues of the magazines in the library to see if the
company was in existence 3 years ago.

2. Getting the price and availability over the phone, but not placing
the order then.

3. Writing a letter confirming that the item is in stock,  placing the
order, giving a card number, and stating that this is an authorization
to charge the card when (and not before) the item is shipped.

The theory (which I haven't tested) is that writing a letter brings
them under the postal fraud laws if they misprepresented something or
didn't ship, and stating that they are not to charge before shipping
means that if they do they have committed fraud and I shouldn't have to
pay the bill even if they are in another state.

I did have bad luck when JC Whitney went bankrupt after charging my
card but before shipping, but I was too naive to protest things
then.

------------
Wm. Randolph Franklin, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
(518) 276-6077, Franklin@turing.cs.rpi.edu